The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mrs Rita Lau, started her visit to Tokyo, Japan, today (March 1) with a series of exchanges with leaders in Japan's creative industries.
Tonight she hosted a spring reception to promote mutual ties in trade, tourism and creative industries.
Japan is the partner country for Hong Kong's Business of Design Week (BODW) this year. The BODW is an annual international conference dedicated to design, branding and innovation and has become one of the world's most significant design events.
"Japan is one of the world leaders in creative industries. As Hong Kong is working to connect our design sector to the global network, the visit provides an optimal opportunity to explore greater co-operation and exchanges in this area," Mrs Lau said.
Mrs Lau met members of the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organisation to share experiences on the co-operation of government agencies, industrial bodies and individual designers to promote design activities.
She also visited Tokyo Midtown, a 569,000 square metre mixed-used development which is home to leading design establishments including the Suntory Museum of Art, 21_21 Design Sight and Tokyo Midtown Design Hub.
During her two-day programme, Mrs Lau will also visit a number of global establishments to hear their experience in industrial design application, fashion brand-building and lifestyle creativity.
The spring reception was organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Tokyo to promote Hong Kong's business opportunities to local interlocutors in creative industries, tourism and business sectors.
As the finale of the Hong Kong-Japan Tourism Exchange Year, the reception had as its highlights traditional Hong Kong food and cultural heritage, including short performances of Cantonese opera, which was recently added to UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and other attractions such as erhu, mask changing and demonstrations of noodle making and "dragon beard candy" making.
Monday, March 1, 2010